Daughter of Pain
by FayeLeonhart
Summary: The story of Fujin. The next chapter is up finally yay!!! I'll update more soon. I promise.
1. Prologue

I know this is very short but I thought where I ended it was a good place to stop so don't hate me.  I'll put more up real soon.

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~Prologue~

A small child with silver hair walked quietly down an abandoned hallway singing softly to herself.  Her voice although only a whisper carried through the empty hall.  She reached her destination and pulled open the door only enough to admit her.  Darkness overtook her sight.  Somewhere in the pitch-black room a voice called out to her "Come here."  The girl went to the voice and sat beside it at her mother's feet.  Ultimecia looked down at her daughter and began stroking her hair.  

"Little one what are you doing?" Ultimecia said when she noticed her daughter wasn't giving her the undivided attention she required.  

"Mama?" the little girl asked afraid of her mother's icy tone.  

"Do you grow bored in my presence?  Do you wish to leave me?  Well do you?" Ultimecia yelled in her daughter's face.  

"No Mama I want to stay with you.  Don't get mad." The child cried as Ultimecia grabbed her arm and shook her.

"If you want to leave so bad I'll send you away far away.  To another continent no through time itself."

With an evil laugh and a mournful look Ultimecia pushed her daughter to the floor and pointed at her.  Slowly the room faded around the girl and she passed out.  She was woken up however many hours later by a woman with dark hair.  "Little girl are you okay?" the woman asked.  Warmth was in her voice this startled the girl her mother's voice was always so cold and cruel.  "Are you okay?  Can you talk?" the woman persisted.  "YES" Fujin responded.


	2. Chapter One

~Chapter One~

Edea picked up Fujin and carried inside the big stone house.  There she tended to the girls wounds, fed her, and finally let her sleep.  Fujin was astonished at the kindness Edea was showing her.  She had been used to the darkness and the ruthlessness of home now here with Edea she found a whole new type of world.

Her first morning at the orphanage she woke to sunlight and the pleasant sound of children's voices.  She slowly eased herself out of bed and put on the clothes Edea gave her, the other clothes she had were ripped and strange to this place.  After getting dressed she made her way downstairs and into what seemed to be the living area.  At least fifteen pairs of eyes stared at her when she opened the door.  Matron went over to her and introduced her to the rest of the kids.  Some smiled and waved others did nothing.  Matron told her to take a seat next to some boy with blond hair she did as she was told quickly.  She did everything unusually fast because in her mother's house if you didn't she punished you.  Sitting down next to him Fujin gave him a smile.  

He smiled back and said, "My name's Seifer."  

"HELLO"

"Why are you talking funny like that?" a boy that sat on the other side of Seifer asked.  Seifer elbowed him.

"DUNNO"

"This is Raijin."

"OKAY" Fujin smiled shyly at Raijin now.

Seifer laughed and said, "Do you wanna come play with us?  We're gonna play war with the others."  He pointed to some other children standing by the doorway,

"YES"

A few hours at the orphanage had begun to repair all the damage of Fujin's past.  She was already starting to forget about her mother.  Playing war now with some kids that had been introduced as Selphie, Irvine, Zell, Quistis, and a few others she was for the first time happy.

"OW" Fujin said when Seifer poked her.

"Heh looks like you got sunburn pretty bad." Seifer laughed.

"SUNBURN?" Fujin always had pale skin and didn't know what sunburn was.

"You know when you're in the sun too long you get all pink like you are now.  Sunburn you must have had it before." This girl confused Seifer.

"I'll take you to Matron she'll help you out.  She has this aloe stuff ya know?" Raijin butted in.

"FINE"

Similar odd things Fujin did all day.  Seifer thought she was funny and she puzzled Raijin.  To them not knowing what flowers and trees were was strange.  At home there were no things like that only darkness and shadows.

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Over the short time Fujin had been at Edea's she had started to realize that children were always being taken away and more were always coming in.  This bothered her.  She was worried that she would be separated from her new friends.  Seifer explained to her that the ones that left had been adopted and that she too might get adopted one day.  Now every time a family came to adopt a child she stayed close to Seifer making sure he didn't go.  "DON'T GO," she said to him once when a family might have wanted to adopt him.  "No one ever picks me don't worry I'll still be here I'll stay with you.  Me you and Raijin were posse now.  Nobody can separate us."  "GOOD"

They remained at the orphanage.  Seifer was right nobody wanted to take them.  They were the freaky silver haired girl, the loud boy that always ended sentences with "ya know", and the bad boy.  They stuck together even after Seifer went to Balamb Garden following him and each taking up weapons of their own.

One day three years after they came to the Garden Fujin realized her love for Seifer.  Love was thing she had never had before but with her past totally forgotten and her friends around her she had learned what is was.  She was training with a boy she didn't really like and he hated her.  There was an "accident".  She moved in to slash him with her shuriken but instead he sliced her eye.  A very angry Seifer took her to infirmary.  Her left eye was completely useless and she was forced to wear a patch over it.  Seifer after making sure she was safe in her room went after the boy that did it to her.  He found him and beat him up badly.  That was when Fujin decided two things: One was she was going to get tough so she wouldn't need Seifer to beat her enemies for her and two was that she loved Seifer.


	3. Chapter Two

Finally another Fujin chapter right?  I'm sorry I just couldn't think of anything to write for her.  I have ideas for later but no ideas to get to the other ideas.  So hard but we love Fujin.  She rocks and all.  I know that barely anything has to with Ultimecia in the chapter but all that stuff will come later.  I thought Fujin deserved a childhood. All of them are about 11 or 12 in this chapter.

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~Chapter Two~

The loud sound of slashing filled the air.  Fujin was demolishing a practice dummy with her shuriken.  Her slashes got faster and faster as she continued.  Finally she stopped.  The sudden quietness of the room caused Seifer to look up from the book he was reading.  Despite how tough Seifer looked to others Fujin knew different.  She knew what that old crumbly book Seifer was reading was about.  It was a classical tale of a sorceress and her knight.  Throughout the book the knight defends the sorceress from many that fear and hate her.  In the end the sorceress and the knight go off and live somewhere where no one knows who they are.  The happily ever after ending.  Seifer's dream was to become that knight and Fujin's goal was to help him achieve it.  She knew that by helping him achieve his goal she would lose some part of him.  He would love another and she would be left loving him with no return feelings.  That thought made her return to slashing the dummy.  

"Hey Fujin is something wrong?" Seifer asked.  

"NO" Fujin lied.

"Yes there is I can always tell with you." Seifer looked smug then.

"NEGATIVE"

"If you say so.  How 'bout practice together I think you ruined the doll."

"SURE"

Practicing with Seifer made her happy.  She got to be close to him.  She felt like their fighting was a different level of intimacy.  It wasn't like the intimacy of love it was like channeling each other's thoughts while doing a perfect dance of slashing and dodging.  It had more meaning to it then anything else.  She and Seifer were so in tune with each other that they never landed a hit.  Of course perfect things like that can't last forever.  Raijin soon walked in and interrupted them.

"What ya guys doin'?" he asked.  

"What does it look like we're doing?" Seifer said but did not stop fighting.

The disturbance that was Raijin distracted Fujin.  So she stopped practicing with Seifer.  The whole mood was off.  Since it was Raijin that had disrupted the mood Fujin went over and kicked him in the shin.  "Ow what'd ya do that for?"  "ANNOYANCE"  Seifer laughed.  His laughter caused Fujin to smile and look away.  Her anger at Raijin slowly faded.  But then a new feeling of jealousy overtook her.  Raijin was starting to practice with Seifer.  She glared at him for a second before sitting down to watch Seifer fight.  Raijin and Seifer didn't have the connection that she and Seifer had.  Seifer still performed perfectly but his fight with Raijin didn't contain the spiritualness her's and Seifer's had.  Seifer noticed it to; there was a definite difference between the two fights.  This caused him to sigh.  He wanted to practice with Fujin only.  It was better that way.  He too felt the bond between them.  A bond he didn't want to ignore but he had to.  This bond between him and Fujin wouldn't help him in the long run.  He wanted his future to turn out like he wanted in to.  Him a knight with his sorceress and his posse backing him up.  Them being a posse and all Fujin did always seem to back him up even if he was wrong.  It didn't matter to her.  The only thing that mattered was that Seifer was happy.

"Hey stop it!!  Stop it right now!  You two are going to get in trouble!!" Quistis said.  Seifer and Squall were fighting again.  "QUIET" Fujin told her.  "They're gonna get in trouble."  "LET THEM"  Fujin stood quietly on one side of Seifer next to Rajin.  She was ready to back Seifer up if the fight turned dirty.  It didn't nothing happened except that a faculty member came and broke up the fight.  Seifer and Squall were lead to Headmaster Cid's office to be punished.  Fujin stood outside the door waiting.  Squall emerged first from the office and choose not to acknowledge Fujin's presence.  But Fujin was not one to be ignored.  So she simply said, "STUPID" and stuck her foot out to trip Squall.  Squall flinched slightly, said nothing, and walked around her foot.  He was not going to be bothered by a little girl who hadn't a chance in the world of hurting him.  He exited the area with out even bothering to look at Fujin.  She didn't care because she knew Seifer would beat him someday.  Seifer remained in Cid's office for a long time.  It was probably because he had been getting into fights more often lately.  Finally the door opened and Seifer stepped out.  

"PUNISHED?" Fujin asked.  

"Yeah I'm not allowed out of the Garden for a while and I have to be in my room two hours before curfew."  

"SORRY"  

"It's not your fault.  I fought you didn't"

"SQUALL PUNISHED?"

"Not really he's just not allowed out of the Garden.  Not like he goes anywhere anyway.  Him and I have a date now to finish our fight without getting caught.  We're gonna sneak out one night and fight on the docks in Balamb.  You're gonna come to watch right?"

"YES"

"Good you being there always seems to help me fight."

Upon saying that Seifer turned red and looked away.  He didn't mean to be so corny and mushy like.  It didn't fit in with the image he was trying to build for himself.  Fujin also blushed but not because she was embarrassed but because she took what he said in a different way.  To her it made it seem like Seifer needed her.  He did but he wasn't going to ever admit it.

Three nights later Seifer and Squall broke all their punishment rules and snuck out of the Garden.  Fujin and Raijin followed closely behind Seifer.  No one said a word until they were safely on the docks.  Raijin posted himself as a look out to make sure no one was going to disturb the fight this time.  Fujin stood off to the side somewhere behind Squall.  She picked that spot because she could see Seifer the best there.  Regrettably Seifer could see Fujin perfectly also.  She threw off his concentration at first.  From where he stood she looked beautiful.  She was standing on the edge of the dock by the water.  Moonlight was shining it seemed to Seifer directly on her.  It made her look like she glowed.

Seifer eventually stopped looking at her.  The fight began.  It lasted what appeared to be forever to Fujin.  Neither boy gained any advantage off each other.  They both were so evenly matched that no one hurt each other bad at all.  Then they started to lose momentum.  Fujin knew that this was where Seifer was going to win.  He always saved some extra energy for when his opponent was weakening.  Slowly the hits Squall made were weaker and weaker.  That as Fujin had suspected was when Seifer struck.  His blows came fast and they pushed Squall backwards towards the docks edge.  Seifer's intent of course being to knock Squall into the water.  The closer to the edge they got the wilder Squall's hits became.  It wasn't that he didn't know how to swim it was that he knew once he fell he would lose the fight.  So instead of giving up he pushed on and exerted a newfound energy.  This caused him to bump into Fujin as he progressed back up the dock.  Fujin went toppling into the cold dark water.  The second she hit she let out a little scream, which caused her mouth to fill up with water.  Splashing around she surfaced but only for a second because she didn't know how to swim.  Seifer seeing she was in danger threw his Gunblade aside and pushed Squall who was standing open-mouthed looking sorry out of the way.  Seifer started to swim over to Fujin but the closer he got the farther away she went.  Suddenly a white light illuminated the water.  It seemed to be coming from Fujin.  The water pulled away from her and she dangled in thin air until Seifer got to her.  Then with a crash back into the water Fujin fell into Seifer's arms.  Seifer dragged the unconscious Fujin to the beach.  Squall and Raijin came running over.  Squall looked like he was sorry he hadn't meant to push her into the sea.  Seifer ignored his pitiful look and picked up Fujin.  She weighed practically nothing and so he carried her back to Balamb Garden easily.  Squall and Raijin walked behind him hoping that Fujin would be ok.

Once they got back to the Garden Seifer took Fujin straight to the infirmary where he faced the questions of where he had gone and what had happened.  With a new punishment hanging over his head he was forced to leave the infirmary.  The next morning he went back to the infirmary to see if Fujin was awake yet.  She was still unconscious.  "What's wrong with her?" he asked Dr. Kadowaki.  "She just needs some rest she really exerted a huge force of energy out there.  More than enough energy someone would need to stop themselves from drowning.   Did something else happen out there?"  "No."  "All right if you say so but I don't think you're being truthful.  Now go to class."  Seifer had neglected to tell Dr. Kadowaki about the light that Fujin gave off.  He hadn't said anything about how when he got to her she was dangling in midair.  He hadn't told anyone about that and he felt he shouldn't.  Mysterious things like that weren't liked much in his world.  Not after the war with the sorceress.  Seifer realized that someone other than himself did know about Fujin's strange power.  That someone was Squall.  Seifer set himself out to find Squall.  When he did he cornered him and tried to get him to swear that he wouldn't tell anyone about what he saw.  Squall however was not going to agree so easily.  Why would he none of it really mattered to him but he saw it bothered Seifer so he didn't agree right away.  He tired of the game shortly and promised Seifer he wouldn't tell another soul.  Seifer sighed a breath of relief and went back to haunting the infirmary.

Fujin woke up later that night.  The second she did Seifer was right there.  This made Fujin so happy.  He cared about her.  It mattered to him that she was hurt.  Dr. Kadowaki wouldn't let Fujin leave for another day but when she did she felt totally fine.  Seifer however didn't he had this growing fear about Fujin's power.  He wondered what it was and why she had it.  Since all this revolved around Fujin he decided to ask her about it.  

"Fujin um...remember the night of the fight?" Seifer asked then shook his head of course she remember the night of the fight it had just happened.

"YES"

"What happened then?  I mean after you fell into the water you started to glow and when I got to you you weren't in the water anymore you were above it.  What happened there?  What was that power?"

Instead of answering Fujin eyes got wide and she started to twitch.  "Fujin what's wrong?" a very worried Seifer cried out.  Again no answer.  The only sound was a low moaning noise coming from Fujin.  Seifer didn't know it but at the time horrible images were going threw Fujin's mind.  She hadn't remembered most of them until just then.  They were of her past and she was scared of them.  Quickly ever thing came back to her causing an information overload.  Too many things to be remembered at once she collapsed for the second time in three days.  Seifer rushed back to get Dr. Kadowaki who hurried to get Fujin back into the infirmary.  "What happened now?" Dr. Kadowaki asked as she carried Fujin back to the same bed she had just left.  "We were just walking and she collapsed." said Seifer.  More lies all rotating around the secret of Fujin's power.  Was it magic?  Was it a divine power?  What had happened?  To Seifer this all remained a mystery for many years.  He didn't ask her about it anymore.  When she got out of the hospital Fujin seemed changed.  It wasn't because of her episode or because of all the things she remembered.  She had already forgotten once again.  It was because she didn't want Seifer to think she was weak and didn't deserve to be his friend.  Little things like the acceptance from Seifer were more important to her than finding out her own past.  Seifer was her whole world.

Everything went back to normal after she left the hospital.  She took up practicing with Seifer more and more and became an even better fighter than she already was.  Seifer didn't seem to want to let her out of his sight for fear that she would collapse again.  Fujin didn't like the thought of Seifer worrying that she was weak now so she practiced fighting more forcefully.  She'd show Seifer how weak she was.  Now the truth was that Seifer didn't really think she was weak he was just so worried about her that nothing else mattered at the moment to him.  


	4. Chapter Three

I don't own any of the FF8 characters and such.  Quotes taken from the game are copyrighted to Squaresoft.  Sorry this took a long time to be updated.  I have the ideas I just didn't have the time to type it all up.  Most of the stuff Seifer says about magic in the chapter I got from the game in the tutorial section Squall's computer

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~Chapter 3~

Years past and time covered up the mysterious power that Fujin had.  No one really forgot what happened the night of the fight on the docks but it was pushed into the backs of their memories.  Seifer had watched Fujin closely for a while but nothing happened again.  Fujin was almost exactly like any other girl besides her silver hair and amber eyes.  There was nothing strange about her, she was the Fujin Seifer had always known.  Everything at the Garden was normal once more.  The intense rivalry between Squall and Seifer continued.  They fought, their fights were broken up, they were punished, and life went on.  It was the norm and Fujin didn't expect that norm to be changed anytime soon.  But things did start to change.  She started to change.  Visions started coming to her.  At first she only had them while sleeping, bits and pieces of her past came to haunt her in her dreams.  Soon after though the visions would strike during the day, she could just be walking down the hallway to go to class and suddenly she'd black out and see visions.  The visions frightened her she didn't know what to make of them but she did know one thing and that was that she couldn't tell anyone about it.  She didn't know what was happening to her but she was sure that if some else knew she'd be in trouble.  Either every one would fear or hate her or she would be tested to see what her strange power was.  She didn't want to be a lab rat and she didn't want to be anymore of an outsider than she already was.  Eventually the visions became a normal part of her life.  Calm and peacefulness can't last forever and sure enough it didn't.  The next step in the ever-changing life of Fujin was that Seifer found a girlfriend.

It all happened much to fast to Fujin.  One day she and Seifer were practicing together so in tune with each other then the next day all Seifer could talk about was Rinoa.  Fujin despised Rinoa.  She had wanted Seifer to be hers not some little twit's who couldn't even protect herself.  That's how they met, Seifer and Rinoa.  Seifer saved Rinoa from a monster that was attacking her.  From the beginning Fujin had a bad feeling about going to Timber for summer vacation with Seifer and Raijin.  She had wanted to stay at he Garden like they had every summer before that.  Changes bothered Fujin especially this new change.  Now no matter how much Fujin hated Rinoa she had to admit that although being a bit ditzy the girl was very nice.  Fujin just couldn't see what Seifer saw in her.  She was nothing extraordinary as a matter of fact Fujin thought she was too weak for Seifer.  She had thought that Seifer would want a girlfriend who'd at least be able to practice fighting with him.  He valued strength a lot.  Or maybe he liked being the protector a role that he could play with Rinoa.  During the summer Fujin felt the closeness that she and Seifer had slip away.  She became more withdrawn and didn't talk even to Seifer much.  '_I shouldn't be so jealous of her and so angry with him.  I should be happy that he is happy_' thought Fujin.  But still she could not bring herself to be happy for them.  When summer break ended Fujin was overjoyed to go back to the Garden.  Now she'd have Seifer all to herself again.  Seifer did still keep in touch with Rinoa but it was different than it had been during the summer.  The closeness between Fujin and Seifer returned almost to its original extent.  There was just a part of Seifer that belonged to Rinoa when it had been free Seifer could behave how he liked but now his feelings couldn't wander.

After they returned to the Garden Seifer's feelings all got mixed up.  He had spent a wonderful summer with a girl he thought he loved.  But now back at the Garden he didn't know if those feelings had been love or just lust.  He did care about Rinoa but another part of him was pulling him towards Fujin.  He kept pushing those thoughts aside.  'I love Rinoa, I'm with Rinoa, and Fujin is just my friend just part of my posse.' Seifer would think to himself.  Over the course of the next few months Seifer managed to hold back his feelings for Fujin.  So many new things were happening around him and he didn't have the time to let his feelings interfere with his goals.  Seifer was taking his SeeD exam soon but he wasn't worried about that he felt confident in his abilities.  What worried him was that after the exam when (not if) he passed he might have to lose his posse.  Fujin and Raijin weren't taking their SeeD exams and so Seifer worried about not having his posse around anymore.  Fujin and Raijin didn't plan on ever taking the exam.  They were content to just graduate and help Seifer fulfill his dreams.

As the SeeD exam came closer and closer Fujin helped Seifer practice fighting more and more not because he didn't think he'd pass but because he needed to calm his nerves.  His life had become rather stressed out lately and Fujin sensed it.  She knew he was stressed but she had no clue it was because of her.  She thought that all the changes that were going on were making him stressed out.  Because she was part of his posse and because she loved him Fujin always tried to help him relieve his stress.  Fujin was also very stressed out herself.  She had begun to find magic stocked on her that she had never drawn.  This new strangeness about herself scared her.  Why was all this happening to her?  What was going on?  Fujin didn't want to be anymore different than she already was so she didn't tell anybody.  The more strange things that happened to her the more withdrawn Fujin became.  She felt as if she could talk to no one about anything anymore.  She felt that they wouldn't understand what was happening.  Seifer became worried about Fujin.  He wanted her to be able to tell him what was wrong.  Instead of being repelled by Fujin's withdrawnness Seifer actually found himself wanting her even more.  He wanted to take her in his arms, comfort her, and tell her that everything would be all right that they would work together and fix things.

The morning of the SeeD field exam came.  Seifer and Fujin were up at the crack of dawn in order to prepare for the test.  They practiced for a while until Seifer decided he needed to practice with someone he wasn't so in tune with.  He sought out Squall and challenged him to a practice match.  Well it was supposed to be a practice match but Seifer and Squall always took things too seriously with each other.  They ended up having an all out brawl that didn't end until both of them had wounded each other.  Upon having slashed Seifer across the forehead Squa     ll collapse from his own head wound that had previously been inflicted to him by Seifer.  Seifer remained standing and considered himself the winner.  He had a garden faculty member take Squall to the infirmary and went back to his room with Fujin.  In his room Fujin made his cut stop bleeding and cast a cura spell.  

"Cura huh?  I didn't know I was that badly cut.  Hey where'd you get that spell anyway?  No monsters or draw points around here carry that spell." Seifer said.

"DUNNO" Fujin responded but didn't meet his eyes.  It was one of the spells that had just appeared with her.

"I don't believe you but I can tell you don't want to tell me.  You'll have to tell me one day but for now I'll let it go.  And because I'm being so nice and not pressuring you into telling me you should let me draw some cura from you for my exam."

"OK" Fujin smiled at him.

Seifer started to draw the magic from her but halfway through cried out and broke the connection.

"WHAT'S WRONG?" Fujin asked concerned for his safety.

"I couldn't draw it.  I started to but it cut me off.  It was too powerful and pure.  It's not like the magic from draw points.  It's different.  Have you ever read some of Dr. Odine's research on magic?"

Fujin shook her head she was no longer worried about Seifer's health she was now worried that he would think that she was a freak.  "Well he says that the magic that we humans use is actually para-magic meaning it's magic but not in its full pure form.  We use a toned down version of magic but sorceresses use the pure form.  Their magic is much stronger and only they can use it.  I dunno but the magic you have is way too pure and whole to be para-magic.  It's natural and I can't draw it.  How did you get it?  Could you be a sorceress?" Seifer was confused even more about Fujin.  She had always confused him from the first day they had met but he had always accepted her.

"NO!!!" Fujin yelled at Seifer.  Seifer looked shaken.  "I'M NOT A SORCERESS!!  I'M FUJIN I'M NOT ANYTHING SPECIAL!!" Fujin looked strange now.  Her hair was being blow around by a nonexistent wind and her eyes were glowing.  Another person in that situation might have been afraid of Fujin but Seifer wasn't.  He was amazed at her but he knew she wouldn't hurt him.  He walked closer to her and said, "Fujin…" Fujin looked down at him and his vision went black.  She caught the unconscious Seifer before he hit the floor and held him up until he awoke a few seconds later.  At that time her appearance returned to normal and she passed out.

'_What the hell happened here?  Last thing I remember was Fujin making my cut stop bleeding.  Then I blacked out.  What happened to Fujin?_' Seifer thought as he placed Fujin on his bed.  Fujin had made Seifer and herself forget what had just happened.  Deep inside her she wanted to be normal so bad that when she was accused of being something that was hated and feared her body and powers acted on their own.  She had no control over what they had done and now she and Seifer didn't remember what had happened.  Fujin woke up a couple minutes later and wasn't surprised to find Seifer hovering around her looking concerned.  Anytime she was sick or injured he was always around worrying about her.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Fujin asked.

"I dunno.  One minute you were fixing up my cut the next we're both unconscious.  This is strange do you remember anything else?"

Fujin shook her head.  "Hmmm maybe we should see Dr. Kadowaki about this," Seifer said then looked at his watch and continued on, "Oh shit not right now though I got an exam to get to.  We gotta hurry."  Fujin and Seifer set off at a run towards the front gates.  Raijin joined them about half of the way there and the three of them hurried onward.  When they arrived Fujin frowned when she found out that Squall was in Seifer's group but it made her happy to know that Squall would have to follow Seifer's orders.  After the silly instructor annoyed Seifer they all went to get into the car that would take them to Balamb town.  Fujin and Raijin were going to walk to Balamb later on and wait for Seifer to return but the exam lasted for a while so they didn't need to leave yet.  Since she had some time to herself Fujin decided to check out Seifer's room to see if there were any clues to why they both passed out.  The only thing that seemed odd about the room was that although the window was closed all of Seifer's paper and stuff all looked blown around.  Fujin wondered why but decided it wasn't important he could have had the window open before and just never cleaned up his mess.  About a half and hour before the SeeD exam was supposed to be over Fujin and Raijin walked over to Balamb.  They waited around by a car from the Garden.  Finally the SeeD candidates arrived back.  Seifer was one of the last to exit the pier.  He went straight to the car that Fujin and Raijin were by and entered it.  They followed his lead and got in the car.  A second later Squall and two others exited the pier and the blonde boy looked angrily at the car as Seifer made it speed away from the town.  Seifer also seemed angry at something.  "PROBLEM?" Fujin asked.  "Yeah a stupid withdraw order.  I had something good going and we got a withdrawal order.  Dammit we could have stopped the Galbadia soldiers from taking over the radio tower but we had to go back because some little messenger girl gave us the withdraw order." Seifer was rather angry now.  His anger was reflected in how dangerous his driving was.  The car screeched into the Garden parking lot and Seifer slammed on the brakes.  They pulled into a parking spot and Seifer walked off towards the training center to let some steam off.  Fujin wanted to follow Seifer but she knew at that time she couldn't help with anything.  Raijin decided to go back to his dorm room for a while until the exam results were given so that left Fujin standing by herself in the parking lot.  She went and sat on a bench by the entranceway.  She figured that she would wait here for Seifer then go up with him to find out whether or not he had been made a SeeD.  Fujin saw Squall and two others enter the Garden.  The three of the broke up and went their separate ways, Squall went off in the same direction as Seifer had gone.  At last after waiting for what seemed to be hours the exam results were going to be given out.  Seifer walked towards the elevator with his head hung.  

"PROBLEM?" Fujin ran up to him and asked.

"Yeah.  I'm in trouble again only this time it's the worst that could happen.  Xu and Quistis said I didn't have a chance at becoming a SeeD because they said my lack of ability to follow orders.  I don't see it that way I would have helped them and became a hero if it wasn't for that withdrawal order.  I wasn't disregarding orders I was following the enemy.  We were supposed to protect Dollet was I just supposed to let the enemy get away." Seifer spoke quietly and didn't raise his head.

"NO.  you did the right thing." Fujin lowered her voice for once trying to comfort him.

"I have to spend some time in the disciplinary room too.  Arrg!!"  Seifer punched the wall.

Fujin was angry also.  Seifer was probably the only person in this Garden that actually deserved to be a SeeD but now it seemed that he wouldn't become one.  Even though the odds were against them Seifer and Fujin went up to the hallway by the classrooms.  There any small shards of hope they had left were smashed to pieces when only four new SeeDs (none which were Seifer) were inducted.  Despite his anger Seifer kept a straight face and clapped for the new SeeDs.  Fujin and Raijin followed his lead.  After the SeeDs speeches Seifer and his posse went back to his room.  His stay in the disciplinary room didn't start until the next day so this was his last night of freedom.  Seifer threw himself down on his bed and Fujin and Raijin stood around awkwardly for a few moments until Fujin sat down next to him and stroked his hair.  His disappointment in himself showed so clearly that Fujin didn't know what else to do.  His back was trembling indicating either tears or powerful anger.  Without stopping from stroking Seifer Fujin took his hand into her other hand.  Seifer didn't know what to do anymore.  He felt cursed.  His dream was shattered and any hopes of anything getting better vanished from Seifer's mind.  He didn't know what to do only to lie there not crying but trembling with such disappointment.  He had always looked forward to the day that he would become a SeeD but now that day probably would never come.  But at least…at least he'd always have his posse behind him now.  They were the only people he could count on.  They cared about him and wouldn't let him down.  Fujin continued to stroke Seifer's hair until he stopped shaking and rolled over onto his back.  "Thanks Fujin," he said with a half smile.  Fujin smiled timidly back at him.  She wanted him to cheer up.  Right when his dreams got smashed to pieces Fujin had wanted to run to him and hug him and comfort him.  But too many things were happening at once and she couldn't make sense of anything anymore.  Everything and everyone that was important to her was changing.  Things were becoming too different.  So the only thing that made her feel the safest she had felt in a while was when she sat on Seifer's bed and he smiled at her.  His smile always helped her over come any fear she might have.  They had learned to lean on each other.  Together they made it through the ordeal of the SeeD exam.  Seifer got off his bed and said, "Well now that we're done being upset we shouldn't sit around here all night.  Although I didn't pass we're still invited to the SeeD ball.  Let's go."  Seifer said all this with a smile but it seemed odd to Fujin.  'Won't it be too painful for Seifer to see the new SeeDs and know he won't become one.  Especially since Squall is now a SeeD.' Fujin thought.  But instead of saying anything Fujin followed Seifer to the ball.

Seifer froze in the door way and Fujin who was just a step behind him wondered why.  She pushed past Seifer a little and she caught a glimpse of what had made Seifer freeze before he pushed her back out the door.  It was too late to hide anything Fujin had seen Rinoa dancing with Seifer's rival Squall.  Not only had Squall stolen Seifer's SeeDship he had also stolen his girlfriend.  Fujin didn't know how Seifer felt at that moment and all she could do was stand behind him and watch him grow angry.  He wanted to go after Squall but Raijin was holding him back.  At that moment Rinoa noticed Seifer and left Squall's arms to run to Seifer.  Seifer turned away at first but Rinoa followed behind him and grabbed his arm.  Fujin and Raijin left them alone and returned to their dorm rooms.  Fujin was boiling mad.  'How dare Rinoa hurt Seifer like that and expect him to forgive her.  That stupid girl doesn't even realize what she did.  She doesn't deserve Seifer she can't help him like I help him,' thought Fujin.  Fujin had intended to vent her rage but instead she was taken by the visions:

_There was a woman crying and begging.  Fujin stood by a table and her mother stood next to her.  On the table was the woman, weeping…weeping so loudly and begging too.  Begging for her life.  But no matter what the woman was powerless to stop what was coming.  Fujin also couldn't stop what was about to happen.  She didn't want it to happen.  She wanted the crying to stop.  Fujin stood by the table with her eyes wide open not able to blink.  She was too afraid.  Finally her mother made the woman stop crying but in a different manner than Fujin had hoped.  Her mother had killed the woman.  Suddenly Fujin felt some sort of power enter her veins and then the next thing was unconsciousness._

Unconsciousness in her flashback turned into unconsciousness in her body.  She remained where she had fallen unconscious.  While Fujin was having her vision Seifer was still at the ball with Rinoa.  After apologizing for hurting Seifer Rinoa had clung to Seifer's arm biding him to spend the rest of the evening with her.  He found himself no longer mad at her but at ease.  Her carefree spirit made him feel happy and relieved.  He forgot about his troubles for the time being.  Rinoa and Seifer talked for a while until Rinoa told him about her request for SeeDs that kept getting denied.  Her resistance group really needed some help for their plans to succeed but she was having no luck getting SeeDs to help out.  Seifer took her with him to introduce her to Headmaster Cid right away.  After talking with him for a while he agreed to let Rinoa's resistance group have three SeeDs.  Rinoa thanked Cid and Seifer a lot before she went skipping out the door on her way home for the night.  Seifer hadn't realized how much he had missed Rinoa until he had seen her again.  It was just too bad that Seifer wouldn't be one of the SeeDs that were going to help Rinoa out.  Seifer went to back to his room and to sleep soon after Rinoa left the ball.  There was nothing left for him in that place.  The next morning Seifer was promptly taken to the disciplinary room.  It wasn't until he was already inside did he find out about the three SeeDs that were going on Rinoa's mission.  Instructor Trepe was the one that had broken the news to him.  And he was very upset about it. "What!?  They might end up fightin' the whole 

Galbadian force!  And all they dispatch are 3 rookie SeeD members!?  Dammit!  I'm going to Timber!" Seifer said when he found out.  Since no one believed that he was going to escape and go to Timber is was easy to get away.  He made it out of Balamb Garden quickly and hopped the first train to the station closest to Timber since all the Timber trains had stopped running.  He was worried that that had something to do with Squall and Rinoa.

Sure enough when he arrived in Timber he found out from Rinoa's friend Watts that Rinoa's group had tried to kidnap the president but it had failed.  The next step in the plan was to storm the TV station.  Seifer decided to help with that.  He made his way to the TV station unaware that some one was following him.  Quistis Trepe was trying to get Seifer to return to the Garden peacefully.  Back at the Garden Fujin was worried about Seifer.  She had heard from someone that worked in the disciplinary room that Seifer had escaped.  Fujin was both hurt and worried.  She was hurt that Seifer didn't take her with him, what if he needed backup?  And she was worried that he'd get into serious trouble.  Fujin and Raijin were left waiting at the Garden for news of Seifer.

Seifer had stormed the TV station a moment after the broadcast began.  Squall's team watched on the television as Seifer proceeded to beat up the guards and hol the president hostage.  After Quistis gave them the okay the too burst into the station.

"We need to restrain him!" said Quistis

Instead of trying that tactic Squall said to Seifer, "What do you think you're doing?"

Seifer answered him by saying, "It's obvious ain't it!?  What are you planning to do with this guy?

Squall asked stupidly, "…Planning to do?"

"I get it!  You're Rinoa's…" Zell was cut off by Seifer with a, "Shut your damn mouth! Chicken-wuss!

"He broke out of the disciplinary room, injuring many in the process," Quistis explained.

"YOU STUPID IDIOT" Zell yelled.

Then Squall said the first intelligent thing he had said all afternoon, "Be quiet."

But Zell didn't listen instead he didn't think before he spoke and blurted out, "Instructor, I know!  You're gonna take this idiot back to the Garden, right?

"Shut up! NO!" Squall yelled at him.

"I see…So you're all from the Gardens.  Should anything happen to me, the entire Galbadia military will crush Garden.  You can let go of me now." President Deling said.

Now Seifer didn't know what to do.  "Nice going, Chicken-wuss!  You and your stupid big mouth!  Take care of this mess!  Instructor and Mr. Leader!" he said.

Seifer dragged the president out of the room.  In the next room Seifer pondered for a moment what to do.  Then a woman appeared before him, but not just any woman a sorceress.

"…Poor, poor boy" she said.

Not knowing what else to do Seifer shouted, "Stay away from me!"

"Such a confused little boy.  Are you going to step forward?  Retreat? You have to decide," the sorceress said in a mocking voice.

"Stay back!" Seifer was panicking now.

The sorceress continued on, "The boy in you is telling you to come.  The adult in you is telling you to back off.  You can't make up your mind.  You don't know the right answer.  You want help, don't you?  You want to be saved from this predicament."

"Shut up!" Seifer couldn't calm down.

"Don't be ashamed to ask for help.  Besides, you're only a little boy," the sorceress was really mocking him now.

"I'm not…Stop calling me a boy." Seifer was trembling.

"You don't want to be a boy anymore?" the sorceress asked innocently.

Seifer shouted, "I am not a BOY!" and let go of the president.

The sorceress' voice got less mocking and more inviting then.  "Come with me to a place of no return.  Bid farewell to your childhood," she said.

Seifer followed the sorceress into an unknown place.  Many obstacles littered the path in front of Seifer but he didn't care.  He thought only of how he was managing to fulfill his dream.  In another place Fujin was now pacing her room because of her anxiety.  More changes.  Fujin felt afraid of the future.  Afraid of what was advancing on them all.


End file.
